Necklace discovered in the wreck of the Titanic is a 'breathtaking' find

29 May 2023 , 01:14

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The Titanic lies 12,500ft beneath the Atlantic Ocean's surface (Image: Getty Images)

A necklace that has been missing for over a century has been located in the wreck of the Titanic, with AI being used to identify the owner of the jewellery.

A deep-sea mapping firm, based in Guernsey, was the one to make the discovery.

Magellan undertook the first ever, full-sized digital scan of the trans-Atlantic cruise liner, which lies 12,500ft beneath the Atlantic Ocean's surface, 400 miles from south of Canada.

The firm managed to pick up an image of the golden chain, which also featured the tooth of a Megalodon, a pre-historic shark.

Richard Parkinson, Magellan's chief executive, said the discovery was "breath taking".

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An image of the necklace was picked up during a full scan of the ship (MAGELLAN)

The team were unable to touch the item of jewellery due to an agreement currently in place between the UK and America, that prevents the removal of artefacts from the shipwreck.

However, Magellan were able to take pictures, which they will use to try and identify the necklace’s owner using artificial intelligence.

This will enable the firm to contact the family members of the 2,200 passengers who were aboard the Titanic on its fatal voyage.

Workers on the project will analyse footage of passengers as they boarded the ship, focusing particularly on their faces and the clothes they were wearing.

The project will analyse footage of the ship's passengers to locate their families (Pictures from History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Magellan and Atlantic Productions are currently making a documentary about the project, with the companies undertaking the scan last summer.

During the scan, remote controlled submersibles were manipulated by a team on board a ship. The submersibles collected more than 700,000 images from each angle, after spending over 200 hours surveying the length and breadth of the wreck.

An exact 3D reconstruction of the ship has been created using this data, which has suggested that the Titanic may not have hit an iceberg before it sank.

It is thought the Titanic may not have struck an iceberg (Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Parks Stephenson, who has studied the ship for many years, says there is a "growing amount of evidence that Titanic didn’t hit the iceberg along its side, as is shown in all the movies".

He added: “She may actually have grounded on the submerged shelf of the ice.

"That was the first scenario put out by a London magazine in 1912. Maybe we haven’t heard the real story of Titanic yet.”

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